Homemade Rice-A-Roni Mix Recipe

Make this easy homemade Rice-A-Roni mix recipe!

I have fond memories of Rice-A-Roni from my childhood, but I haven’t bought it for quite a while. And now that I have this homemade Rice-A-Roni recipe, the store-bought stuff probably won’t find its way into my shopping cart again. Homemade rice a roni is easy to throw together, CHEAP, simple to prepare, and tastes great! Perfect side dish for a lot of chicken recipes!

Having control over the ingredients is one of perks of making your own mix. You can make it gluten-free, healthier than the store-bought variety, accommodate for allergies, or tweak the flavor to your liking. Make it how you like it!

I usually use jasmine or basmati long grain rice and angel hair or thin spaghetti pasta. Breaking up all of those noodles takes longer than any other part of the prep, but it isn’t too bad really. Use scissors or a food processor to get it done!

Mix together all of the ingredients – now you’ve got a couple boxes worth of homemade Rice-A-Roni ready to go. Make sure you shake the mix to recombine before you use it. One batch fits really well in a quart jar, by the way.

A note about chicken bouillon powder: Not all are created equally. Some are more salty, some have slightly better ingredients. Just know that the flavor and the nutrition info will vary depending on the kind that you use.

Cook just like you would a store-bought Rice-A-Roni mix. Melt a bit of butter (I bet coconut oil could work too!) in a skillet, and saute a cup of the rice mixture until the pasta starts to turn golden brown.

Then add the water, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer covered for 15 minutes. Easy. Turned out perfectly for me! Serve it as is, or add chicken, broccoli, diced tomato, or whatever else you might like to add to Rice A Roni!

A great little side dish that most of my family enjoys and is super easy to prepare from this homemade rice a roni mix recipe.

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Comments & Reviews

I love the rice pilaf versin of rice-a-roni. Have you made this, or have you tried the rice pilaf? Just curious on a flavor comparison. Love the homemade idea. I am beginning to ban chemicals and dyes and my rice-a-roni had to go:(

Yes this is almost a dead ringer for chicken flavored rice a roni it’s the best I have tried them all…trust …like she says you can add take away and adjust til perfect for you… orzo works great , and the medium vermicelli is great as well, i found the right different types of vermicelli in ethnic international foods isle, i just do not put so much pasta…. like mine tasting more like rice…because I do add shredded chicken breast bits to it , after rice is all done…makes it a hearty meal, vegetable or salad on side and its a hearty comfort food meal

I am not sure. I haven’t tried it out. I do know that brown rice takes longer to cook though, so I definitely wouldn’t sub it in without making changes to the recipe. Let me know if you find a way to make it work!

i use brown rice and i also use the whole wheat pasta, we absolutely love the version here and i switch it up with beef granules or vegetable for variety. Remember brown rice requires additional cooking time and i see it varies by company as a rule i increase the cooking by 10-15 minutes and i increase my water by 1/3 a cup since finding this recipe i haven’t bought rice a roni and honestly i like this version much better less salt more real flavor and NO preservatives, purely GOOD EATS tyvm for this melanie

Yes. Hi , And Melanie you saved my life with this recipe, btw, only way I done it was to use the instant brown from minute rice or uncle bend quick brown takes same time….as normal white somehow feels healthier, but if you want experiment on your family use: half normal long grain white and half the instant brown , works great together 😂💗

Tried that, not same, I dont use quite as much bouillon cubes, .., (knorr brand hits it spot on t o rice a roni, sure the granules do too…but way more exspensive, and thats one main reasons people like the boxes thetre inexs pensive,…. but theres low sodium varieties and want say , chicken stock will taste like a chicken n rice meal does, not like rice a roni

I just wanted to let you know I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this recipe. I’ve been using it for several weeks now, and as I prepare to go out of work on maternity leave & prepare meals for the upcoming weeks (both physically and financially), I wanted to let you know I have included THIS recipe on my top favorties list at Freshly Messy! https://freshlymessylife.wordpress.com/2014/12/10/frugal-rice-recipes/

Seriously, I adore this recipe and the fact I can make it in huge batches to use as much or little as I need for a huge dinner with friends or a single serving lunch time snack for myself!

I think this is probably a good recipe, but I only had bouillon cubes, so used those instead of bouillon powder. (1 cube is 1 teaspoon.) However, it was way too salty. I should have compared the ingredients in bouillon powder and cubes first. Next time I’ll use half the number of bouillon cubes and see how it turns out. I like the food processor idea. I used Fideo Mediano but next time I want to use gluten free spaghetti. Thanks for the recipe!

Tried that, not same, I dont use quite as much bouillon cubes, .., (knorr brand hits it spot on to rice a roni, sure the granules do too…but way more exspensive, and thats one main reasons people like the boxes thetre inexs pensive,…. but theres low sodium varieties and want say , chicken stock will taste like a chicken n rice meal does, not like rice a roni

Good questions! I should have measured last time I made it, but the recipe makes at least 3 cups of the dry mix. When you go to cook the mix, the directions are for 1 cup of mix and I would say that this amount serves about 4 as a side dish.

I was craving Rice-a-Roni, but I’m trying a gluten free diet right now. One of the first ingredients on the box is wheat flour. I hadn’t noticed before that there is a ton of other stuff that I didn’t know what it was or how to pronounce so I’m going to go with it isn’t good for us. This turned out great. I just used gluten free spaghetti noodles and cooked it a little less time. I might still back down the time a little next time and reduce the water slightly, but all in all this was a great way to satisfy my cravings and to know I wasn’t eating a bunch of chemicals. Thanks for posting the recipe!

Those mysterious ingredients in Rice-a-Roni are from the seasoning packet. In this recipe, you use chicken bullion. Take a look at the ingredient list on that and you will see many of the same ingredients. Also, bullion powder is loaded with sodium, and you’re using at least six teaspoons of it when making one cup of the dry mixture.

I haven’t made this exact recipe but I think orzo would work too. I made rice & orzo for the broccoli cheddar RiceARoni. It was awesome. So much better than freeze dried powder whatever. I’m definitely tying this one😊

So I kind of just guesstimated how to make this a while ago, and am only now afterwards looking at recipes to see if there are better approximations to the store-bought spice mix. I guess not, haha, basic through and through.

One suggestion for the gluten free people: soba noodles. They’re made from kasha/buckwheat which is gluten free and come as really thin noodles, maybe somewhere between angel hair and vermicelli on thickness. They also aren’t as delicate as rice noodles, neither in terms of over-browning or crumbling to dust. They are pretty starchy though, and that normally unpleasant stodgyness ends up adding a creamy consistency to the final product, which I’m guessing was the purpose of the wheat flour in the packet.

I used these with Arborio rice, and my seasonings were salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder, a small touch of smoked paprika, and a giant lump of Herbs de Provence (mine had Parsley, Basil, Fennel, Lavender, Rosemarie, Tarragon and Thyme). I also added a heaped spoon of vegetable base to my water before adding it.

I would have added some shredded carrot, onion, and minced broccoli florets, but I was lazy.

I tried a similar recipe to this that didn’t make enough of a mix so I’ll use this one next time. Someone commented on bouillon cubes/powder being too salty, etc. I found a recipe for homemade bouillon using brewer’s yeast and that’s what I used. I was skeptical it would work but the flavor was just like chicken broth, and much healthier! You can control the salt and still get great flavor. I found brewer’s yeast at Trader Joe’s and you can get at most health food stores.

Tried that, not same, I dont use quite as much bouillon cubes, .., (knorr brand hits it spot on to rice a roni, sure the granules do too…but way more exspensive, and thats one main reasons people like the boxes thetre inexs pensive,…. but theres low sodium varieties and want say , chicken stock will taste like a chicken n rice meal does, not like rice a roni

This is the greatest mock chicken flavored rice a roni recipe out there… to healthy it up a smidge, when it comes time to cook it add a tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil… to one cup mix,…use half instant brown rice and regular long grain white and whole grain wheat thin spaghetti for your noodle part, broken up tiny, if you don’t like vermicelli or orzo… the bouillon that’s the cheapest is those huge cubes that come in the tiny yellow boxes, about three of them is plenty…cause the ratio of the huge softer cubes is one cube to 2 cups water versus one cube of the small square HARDER type cubes…those taste gross anyways, the large cubes taste like the granule powder bouillon, and mimic rice a ronis flavor, also for us the amount of Thyme was a bit rough… lesson it maybe by half or better we use some fresh parsely with some poultry seasoning… soooo good

I break the spaghetti noodles while I’m watching TV. What is the method for food processor? Seems like it would fly all over with scissors. I make mine with Watkins onion soup. (Two tablespoons) I’m not a dealer, so I get nothing out of mentioning it, but that brand has the best flavor I’ve ever tasted. I also add and 8 oz can of tomato sauce, no salt. Or 18 oz can of stewed tomatoes, no salt. Cut in case with kitchen scissors. Sometimes I add a couple tablespoons of dried vegetable flakes as well. I don’t like all the work, but I can control the sodium this way and one does save a bit of money.

With the food processor, I just break the pasta into pieces that will fit into the processor container, then put the lid on and start pulsing until the pasta pieces are the smaller size that I want. Easy! It’s true that a few pieces of the pasta can fly off when cutting it, but it’s less than I expected, especially when I am cutting it right into the bowl. Thank you for your comment and sharing your tips and adaptations, Jaroslaw! Sounds delicious!

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